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041 - News From the Front
🕑 Added 2025-01-31 00:03:19 +0000 UTCIn the first hours of the morning, Ethan awoke. And yet, he didn't feel the slightest bit refreshed. The night had been cold, and he had felt the wind strike against the cloth of his tent the entire night, keeping him awake for most of it. Added to the stress of his position, Ethan felt positively dreadful.
Despite it all, he rose without a single word of complaint.
Outside, the world was still dark, with light only beginning to show itself. And yet, breakfast was already in full swing. Many fires had been lit, their flames dancing around large cauldrons containing an appetizing scent.
“Morning,” he said, approaching one of those cauldrons.
Beside it, a middle-aged woman was busy stirring the content. She glanced his way and merely nodded, not saying another word. Considering his rank, Ethan was surprised, yet he saw no contempt in her eyes. Still, he peered into the vessel, only to find a white and creamy substance being stirred.
While he could feel the steam rising to the surface, Ethan sought to plunge a single digit into this mixture, if only to determine its origins, yet was immediately thwarted. The woman slapped his hand away with such uncanny force that he felt the sting linger for quite a while. Yet, this didn’t hurt more than the scowl she gave him afterwards.
“My bad,” he said, looking deeply apologetic. “Are we only having plain oatmeal this morning?”
She nodded once again before returning to her task. He couldn't get any other reaction out of her, no matter how many questions he asked. Feeling that his quest would be unfruitful, Ethan decided to wander about the camp.
He was among the first to wake up. In fact, he was the only one who wasn't one of the Academy's staff or those on the night watch. All students of the Martial Division were still sound asleep. Ethan could even hear them snoring. Some in high pitch, and some in low ones, making no distinction between sexes, no matter how much they wished to deny it.
The camp was divided into two sections: the inner circle, where the women's tents were, and the outer circle, which was for the men. While the Imperium believed in equality, its military was pragmatic. It wasn't foolish enough to deny biology.
Ethan's stroll lasted only minutes, for the camp wasn't that large. Soon, he had come full circle, back to his starting point, yet he had achieved what he needed to. The supplies were still there, right where he had left them, and except for the cart meant for their own consumption during this trip, none of the others had even been touched.
Ethan made a sigh of relief. While he claimed to be on guard against the surrounding fauna, Ethan worried just as much about humans. Before his departure, his sister gave him a report of the Imperium’s current situation, but what truly plagued his mind was this year’s harvest. While not poor, there was a substantial decrease compared to prior years.
The reasons were many, mainly substandard weather, but the main culprit was the Empire's need for soldiers. It sapped the many villages of able-bodied men, leaving only the elders, women, and children to tend to the field. While the men received rather generous compensation for their service, one couldn’t fill one’s stomach with silver alone.
“Inspecting the cargo?” the blind man asked as he took his place next to Ethan.
Ethan shuddered in surprise, letting go of the tarp covering one of the wooden carts. It softly fell back down as Ethan turned sharply to face the man. While he might have been distracted, he hadn't heard a single sound from behind him nor felt his presence at all. If he had been an enemy, Ethan would have been dead.
“No need for that look," the man said, smiling. "Anyone with a little practice should be able to do the same. You, yourself, aren't far from it."
“How do you know what kind of look I’m showing?” Ethan replied, willing his heart rate to slow down.
“The Atmosphere around you gives it away," he said, as if that explained anything. "Spend enough time blind, and you pick up some useful things."
“And, how long does that take?”
“I wouldn't know," the man said with a smile. "My eyes have never reflected the world. Still, what my eyes cannot do, my hands more than makeup for it."
Slowly, the man's hand approached Ethan's face. While he could have dodged, he grew slightly curious and let the man's touch follow the contour of his bone structure. The man's hand prodded everywhere, making Ethan somewhat uncomfortable, but after just a minute or two, Theo grasped Ethan's features, a three-dimensional image in his mind.
“Such a shame,” Theo said, shaking his head slightly.
Ethan couldn't help but frown, outrage rising from the bottom of his heart. Theo's meaning was clear, and Ethan felt like slugging him for it, yet he resisted the urge. Feeling the shift, the man couldn't help but laugh, which took Ethan by surprise. His fist unclenched almost instinctively.
"My apologies," the man said with a chuckle. "You are the most painfully average of those I have scanned."
"I know," he said somewhat spitefully, but when he thought further about it, something in the way Theo had said it struck him.
The visage of the Academy's student flashed in his mind, particularly those of the Martial division. Those were the ones that Theo would have most probably done this to. They were all rather beautiful. In fact, pinned against the average men or women they saw as they strolled the streets of the Capital, they shone like the sun while all others were mere dirt.
If the students were the population from which the average was defined, then Ethan...
Well, there's a saying that magical talent and beauty are correlated. Probably has to do with all the purposeful arranged marriages trying to elevate their bloodlines. It made the two much closer than they probably should have been.
“Why the convoluted phrasing?” Ethan asked.
“I enjoy feeling the shift in people’s emotions,” he replied. “You tried so desperately to keep yours as hidden as possible. It makes it the more worthwhile to drag them out of you.”
“You have some rather distasteful hobbies,” Ethan spat back, yet the man showed no change. Only a slight smile remained on his lips.
He felt his frustrations mount but was distracted by a loud croak overhead. Ethan raised his head, only to see a black bird rush through the sky. It was slightly larger than a pigeon, and its wings cut right through the wind, allowing it to effortlessly glide at amazing speed.
But then, something occurred when the bird noticed the Academy's purple flag flowing in the wind. It turned sharply, then nosedived. It was headed straight toward Ethan, who stood right below said flag.
Right at the last moment, the black bird flapped its wings, breaking its fall just a few meters above the ground. Then, with a smooth and rehearsed motion, it landed on a nearby cart and incessantly croaked to Ethan for attention.
“It seems to be calling you,” Theo said, not moving a single inch.
“You think?” Ethan struck back sarcastically before slowly approaching the bird.
He didn’t wish to spook it with his presence, yet the bird seemed completely used to humans. It didn’t even flinch when Ethan’s hand reached it.
This was more than just a black bird, but a raven specially trained by the military for long-range communication. Attached to its leg was a capsule, only big enough to contain the simplest of messages. Despite its relatively large size, these birds were still limited by weight. Without a second to lose, Ethan detached the string keeping the capsule connected to the bird, and unfurled the piece of paper that was wrapped within.
His eyes narrowed slightly, and his expression darkened noticeably, enough that even Theo had felt the shift. Despite it all, he remained silent until Ethan had finished reading the message. By then, all that Ethan could do was sigh.
"Bad news, I gather?" Theo said, but there was none of his usual playfulness this time. Instead, his expression was deadly serious, mirroring the current atmosphere.
“The worst,” Ethan sighed again. “There’s been some casualties.”
“There are always casualties,” the man said dryly. “What is different about these?”
“The fact that I am responsible for their demise, for one,” Ethan replied sharply. “I gave the order, and it got them killed.”
The letter explained the events of what happened to the advance party he had sent weeks prior and the cause that led to three deaths. The porter and one of the guards reached the fortress unscathed, but the captain and two others weren't so lucky. Their bodies, or what was left of them, were found less than a kilometre away, in the middle of the path, almost as if they were meant to be seen. The squad that found them saw no traces of their assailants.
"At least the supplies made it safely," Theo said after listening to Ethan recount the letter's contents.
This prompted a flame to burn in Ethan's eyes. He clenched his fist and almost wished to slug the man right in the face for this heartless display in the face of this loss, yet he held himself in check, for he knew this was not the man's fault. Deaths were merely inevitable. His fluctuating emotions were simply caused by his guilt as the foremost factor of their demise.
“Don’t be so casual about this,” Ethan said, desperately trying to expunge those feelings. “People are dead.”
"They fulfilled their mission, didn't they? There is no greater honour than to die in service of the Imperium," the man said so casually that Ethan's anger flared once again.
"What bullshit honour!" he snapped. "If the military brass weren't so incompetent, having diverted supplies even before the new supply line was formed, I wouldn't have had to dispatch emergency rations on such short notice! If only we hadn't been so pressed for time, they wouldn't have had to cut through hostile territory only to reach their destination faster. Also, a stronger contingent may have been dispatched, allowing them to contend against their foes instead of using themselves as a distraction. Their deaths aren't honourable; they were completely preventable! They died because of incompetence!"
Theo took the brunt of it yet showed no reaction, letting Ethan completely vent out. Fortunately, others were too far away, and the wind too strong for his words to carry to the core of the camp. The staff only turned their heads for a brief moment before returning to their chores. Still, the sun was now almost fully out, and the world was bathed in light, prompting the students to leave their communal tents one by one.
“Do you feel better,” Theo asked patiently.
“Not at all,” Ethan snapped back. “I feel like shit, but lighter somehow.”
Ethan took a deep breath and calmed himself. The news wasn't entirely unexpected. Seen another way, this was a good thing. He now knew there would be hostility on the way to the fortress and could deal with them accordingly. It seemed his prudence in departing ahead of the main force was a good decision, for the inexperienced students would have only held him back.
He lifted the nearby tarp covering one of the wagons, only to see countless diverse weapons contained within. There were swords, spears and bows. Every kind of weapon one might wish for. In fact, over half the carts contained such weapons, enough to arm the entirety of their convoy.
"Let's go," Ethan said as he walked past Theo back toward the camp. His expression was dark, but a flame burned in his eyes—a flame of vengeance for the three men who had died. He would make those beasts pay dearly for it.
“What are you planning?” Theo said as he followed behind.
Yet, all that Ethan replied with was, “A War.”
